Welcome! You have accidentally reached the blog of a heteroclite follower of Jesus: dave wainscott. I'm
"pushing toward the unobvious" as I post thinkings/linkings
re: Scripture, church and culture. Hot topics include: temple tantrums, time travel, sexuality/spirituality, U2kklesia, role of the pastor, God-haunted music/art..and subversive videos like these.

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Believe it or not, I wasn't familiar with The Smashing Pumpkin's "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" until a band I AM familiar with (believe it) inserted the "rat in a cage" snippet of it into an amazing live version of "Electric Co." (Snippet beginning at 3:35 below, don't miss the the hilarious look Larry gives Bono as Bono smashes the cymbal at 3:49ff...But hey, the whole song from 2:42 is a must-see)

But to actually sing a lyric about "faking it" for one more show when one is depressed..even questioning salvation... is haunting.

Reminds of the lead character in Pink Floyd's "The Wall."Or a preacher on one those unsolicited days(see "I Want to Go Home..Keep on Clapping"..note there is video there of Bono for once singing a version of that confession):

Part 1:We begin our time in Lima (watching changing of the guard, attending an amazing meting where Ken shows the Transformations videos/leads prayer for a Senator and other leaders, making a pastoral/prayer call on an elderly AIDS victim).

The we travel up to Huancayo at 11,000 feet for the week. Here we meet the pastoral family (and dog) at the church where we help build an addiction recovery center. As we are working, a heartbroken couple brings in their newborn for prayer. They hadn't even named her, as they were told she likely wouldn't live. She did! Tom's prayer and the baby's face on video are priceless/

Part 2: Here we watch the Huancayo churches and government actually work together to board up seedy drug and sex clubs. We help out at a VBS out in the country, and return to a lively gathering at Olvidio's church.

Part 3:In some incredibly moving clips to us who were there, we are tearfully prayed over, and tearfully pray for people at the church Olvidio pastors in Huancayo.

But what does Tom mumble about the two gringo preachers at 6:16?

Note: This clip wraps up with us playing with our food..at least the fish heads named Carlos..

Part 4: Some crazy scenes of us hard at work on the mission field

Part 5: Tom tells his powerful and honest story in Huancayo, Peru (Pastor Freddie's church). The opening comments are due to the Peruvians nickname for him: "Tarzan."

Ever been interrupted by dogs barking as you are speaking in church?

Pastor Freddie once faced the Shining Path terrorists with a gun in his face and refused to deny Jesus.

Part 6: Tom follows up preaching by visiting (preaching in?) a sex shop.

Pam gives testimony in a church, as the camera pans across the street to the brothel.

part 7: We were teaching in Huancayo, Peru...these men , who run an outreach center at an apartment complex, showed up unannounced, as they has somehow heard from the grapevine the we were in Huancayo..travelled for hours on mountain roads...and might be able to pray.commission them

Part 8: Huancayo Peru: We visit the recovery center church pastored by Justo, pray for the city over the radio, frolic with food...and finally let you hear the infamous civil defense siren that woke Tarzan and I up every morning at 6:13...mas o menos

Part 9: Fun times with the amazing team of Amor Teansformador pastors and leaders, and Senor Shrek the Wonder Dog...at the Metz home in Huancayo...as well as a bit of the insane 6-hour (100 mile) bis ride down the Andes from Huancayo to Lima..past the highest railroad in the world

Part 10:
filmed some of the monthly pastors cell group for Amor Transformador in Huancayo, Peru. Here we hear a couple stories from a pastor and wife that missionary Ken Metz directly related to the powerful worship gathering we participated in in this couples church the Sunday before (watch it on this video from 4:44ff)
All ten episodes will play sequentially below
(or clickthisto choose an episode)...followed by video of hang-gliding in Lima.

I didn't realize until Mockingbird's post here (a good read) that Bono has often changed the last chorus of "Breathe" into "Spirit, breathe.

He didn't just invite the audience on his otherworldly journey, he also invited Someone Else: at the end of the first song, "Breathe", he closed his eyes and knelt slightly. With one hand holding the microphone and the other palm-toward-heaven, he pleaded, "Spirit breathe."

Love the prayer rap at the end (5 minute mark video below, or audiohere) of "Moment of Surrender" on Saturday Night Live last night.

Who can decipher more/fix this?:

"Like this song, your life is short, it's the longest thing you''ll ever do/the worse the curse was that your dreams came true/God is a mirror in which each man sees himself/Hell is place where you don't need anyone's help..

..When I first met you, your face was like snowWherever i went to, you wanted to goYour face, Your grace, Your can of mace, in cases you put your face downA-17 on the ground/your faith in a (clown? cloud?)Don't leave me now, don't leave me now, don't leave me now Lord, in this song...don't leave me alone in this song"

Thursday, September 24, 2009

For years, it seems Bono has been wanting to express full forgiveness/restoration/acceptance/amazing grace to Adam Clayton..

From Bono insisting on Adam as his best man at his wedding..just when Adam feared he'd get kicked out of the band for not (yet) being Christian..

...through the Elevation tour, when he often embraced..sometimes kissed Adam..during the "I want to go there with you); likely acknowledging/rejoicing in Adam's newfound faith.. Note how he runs towards, kisses, and loves on (as the father towards the prodigal son) the prodigal and prodigy bassman in 4:36-5:10 here:

...to little scenes like this, last night at Giants Stadium..2:06-2:26:

Of course, many have heard the amazing story of how Adam gladly risked his life for the Bonoman (anyone have video of this moment? As you can see, Bono isn't sure..or isn't revealing where it was):

There was a night in L.A. in the early part of the tour when we had a death threat that the police were taking very seriously indeed. Someone had sent the gun license into the U2 offices and they thought he had gotten into the venue. All of a sudden there were all these people on the stage which I really objected to. I never thought that sort of thing would bother me and, when I went out, it didn't. I just laughed it off, like The Blues Brothers - 'We're on a mission from God and we ain't finished yet.' The second night came up and the cops came up to us just before we were about to go on and said they'd made a mistake, He was coming tonight! "Now we get all kinds of racist jibes because we wrote a song for Martin Luther King, or pinko jibes because we did the Amnesty International Tour. Wherever you look we're a target for the loony fringe. So the second night, we're on stage and I'm singing 'Pride' thinking, 'If someone is going to do it, it will be during this number.' So I crouched down on the stage, shut my eyes and for a moment the thought of death crossed my mind. When I looked up I just saw Adam standing over me, between me and the crowd. It was a good, good moment."--Bono "Bono In His Own Words"

Or:

1987. Somewhere in the south. We'd been campaigning for Dr. King, for his birthday to become a national holiday. In Arizona, they are saying no. We're campaigning very hard for Dr. King. Some people don't like it. Some people get very annoyed. Some people want to kill us. Some people are taken very seriously by the FBI. They tell the singer that he shouldn't play the gig because tonight his life is at risk, and he must not go on stage. And the singer laughs. Of course we're playing the gig. Of course we go onstage, and I'm singing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" -- the third verse -- and I close my eyes. And you know, I'm excited about meeting my maker, but maybe not tonight. I don't really want to meet my maker tonight. I close my eyes and when I look up I see Adam Clayton standing in front of me, holding his bass as only Adam Clayton can hold his bass. There are people in this room who'd tell you they'd take a bullet for you, but Adam Clayton would have taken a bullet for me.

"There was a guy who said if we played that song, that was it, he was gonna take us out. He got organised, he got in touch and said, 'Don't do it. If you do, we're got people there.' The FBI, or whoever, were taking it very seriously. I remember singing the tune, thinking, 'Oh, this is interesting.' But I was fine about it, no problem. Then after the show, Paul (McGuinness, manager) came backstage and said, 'Um, look, it's actually the second night he said he was going to do it.' So I had to do it all again, and not to be melodramatic about it, but I was a little freaked. I didn't even look at the crowd. And when it was finished and I looked up, I saw Adam was standing in front of me for the whole thing! I mean, Adam's so posh, right? He's not grown up with any sense of the street, but I have to say when it comes to digging me out of a few situations he's there."-NME

Having used a similar world map from a Charles Kraft book when I teach on culture and worldview (I wish I could teach this stuff like Darrell Whiteman), I was glad to find this map on kingPin68's blog:

A TED talk:"Taryn Simon exhibits her startling take on photography -- to reveal worlds and people we would never see otherwise. She shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit."

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

So I took my oldest daughter down to the Christian bookstore to buy an “Adventures in Odyssey” CD for my youngest daughter’s birthday. The first store, subtitled a “Christian Store” (Er, I’d like to buy a Christian, please) didn’t have any, so we went downtown to the second, a much older long-established store...

Since I was in the Christian bookstore, I browsed the shelves of Christian books briefly, took note at how the level of commentary that was kept in stock has continued to drop, and surveyed some of the topics and titles that seemed popular. I wondered if they had Phyllis Tickle’s The Great Emergence and what else was in that section, but I just didn’t seem to see it on the shelves. As I stepped up to the cashier, my eyes were still scanning the shelves and the topic titles above them.

“Are you looking for something, or someone?” asks the young clerk behind the counter.

“Just wondered if you had an ecclesiology section,” I tell her, assuming they did, and she would just point me in that direction.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

The second Matrix movie was of course the weakest of the trilogy.. loaded with theology/philosophy...a mess of both, sometimes making a mess of both.Here's scene that baffled many trying to makes sense of the God narrative(along with a couple of parodies of it..

It was not until U2 recently started introducing their centerpiece anthem, "Where the Streets Have No Name" with a snippet of "Amazing Grace"("Amazing grace/How sweet the sound/That saved a wretch like me...")in concert that it hit me:

1)Of course! "Sound" is a hallmark theme of their most recent CD("Let me on the sound," "We are people borne of sound," "I found grace within a sound," etc.I have written on this here, as have others.

The "sound" to me is

:

the musical, mystical sound Bono has often mentioned: "looking for a sound to drown out the world."

a reference to string theory ("The universe is at base, sound/music" -Len Sweet), and thus:

a cry to be let into God's sound/voice/strings at its very creation, core, and chaotic creativity. (See "The Divine Voice," an amazing theology of sound, and Sweet's seminal "Summoned to Lead"). Perhaps we can only hear/see God's voice/sound when we pray/act in holy synesthesia...some amazing biblical precedence there.

All salvation, if sound, is salvation by sound.And only sound, at the end of the day, is the sign of a relationship with God:

"Connecting knowledge to sight fools us into thinking that knowing is a private event, since you do not have to be seen in order to see. The very image of illumination conjures a quiet moment that takes place in one's solitude, since light moves without making a sound. The privacy of sight is reinforced by the fact that you can see from a distance. Indeed, the further you can see (the further from the object you are), the more impressive is your act of knowledge.

Hearing, by contrast, establishes a more intimate relationship between source and perception. On a very basic level, this is true simply because we must be fairly close to the source of the sound we are trying to hear. Even with amplification, as all theater professionals know, we understand what someone is saying better when we can see them speak. More scientifically put, sound waves travel slower and weaken more quickly than light waves. It is that physical limitation that makes hearing a more relational form of knowledge.-Stephen Webb, "The Sound of God: Supersonic Theology and the Future of Public Speaking"

Do the math:

"We walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor 5:17):It's "not by sight," so the "certainty of what we see" is moot (and "mute").

Better to trust and intuit from what/who we HEAR...in the sound:

"Faith comes by hearing...":

Somehow Bono has intuited that, just knows it, has not just heard of it, but heard it.He is epistemelogically grounded and doctrinally sound.

Shofar, so good..

2)BUT...Why did the hymn writer (uh, John Newton, not Bono this time) choose the surprising, non-sequitur definition of grace as...of all things.. a "sound"? St. Tim may talk about me "pushing toward the unobvious," but if you asked 1oo theology students to define grace with a fill-in-the-blank, a total of less than zero would answer"sound." Even though it may be the definitive right answer.

One would think John Newton had been influenced by Bono's theologizing on "No Line on the Horizon" in 1748.

U2 has been quoting or referencing sections of "Amazing Grace" since...well, the first single of their first album:and singing snippets of the hymn itself in concert foralmost as long. Bono has called it nothing less than his all time favorite song.

But finally it is fully at home in the setlist, as the whole trajectory and "order of worship" revolves around sound itself.---

To my amazement, the first two results (here and here)of a quick googling of the "Amazing Grace" lyrics coupled with "sound of grace" landed me on articles about the U2 record!

But who has researced what Newton chose the striking sound metaphor(or the opposite of metaphor, whatever that is...one dictionary suggests that it is "anthropomorphism,"

"The ascription to the Deity of human forms or modes and of human feelings or moods, respectively...

A term used in its widest sense to signify the tendency of man to conceive the activities of the external world as the counterpart of his own.")?

Anyone know the story?

What did Newton hear that convinced him that grace was a Sound that saved him?

I have only found one guesstimate:

The opening words of the song are interesting; I do wonder what Christians make of them: "Amazing grace; how sweet the sound ..." Why sound, and not feeling or experience?

.. It would seem from Newton's careful, clever lyrics that his experience, too, was triggered by a sound -- likely that of the ship's bell or foghorn.-Tom Armstrong

In the meantime, one should read (or better yet, listen to) two of the books I have already namechecked:

-Leonard Sweet's "Summoned to Lead," a wonderful take on leadership through the lens of sound..

How else would one incarnate the sound of grace, and let is into said sound?Sounds good.

Sounds like grace.

Thy Sound come.Thy Grace be done.On the streets of earthAs it already is in heaven.

"...all great music gives us a sonic foretaste of heaven by translating salvation into a musical key. All imagination is born out of the desire for eternity, but as much as the imagination transforms our desires, so will heaven transform our imagination. Heaven will not be contrary to what we imagine of it, but it will exceed our imagination to an inconceivable degree. In heaven, the divine voice will no longer be carried along by vibrations of air but instead will travel at the speed of grace, and it will sound amazingly sweet."-Stephen Webb, "The Sound of God: Supersonic Theology and the Future of Public Speaking"

Oh how we need on earth before we go to heaven, an eschatological inbreaking of imagination, jumpstart on justice, and the Shematic hearing of God's heavenly Voiceprints.

It's we who walk in grace and are grace, that are and incarnate the "grace...and sound greater than... and beyond the noise" (Sammy Rodriguez's phrase ):

"What does the sound of grace sound like ? ...Jesus is the Resurrected Songwriter of the new song..We go beyond the music, beyond the noise, beyond the volume..

Grace has a sound..YOU are the sound of grace."-Rodriguez, "Are You a Third Day Christian?" , pp 108; 117

But no one is a genius or great teacher who leaves the supposed learnees learning nothing…except the lie that the teacher is a great teacher because the content was over the students’ heads!

That encounter, several years ago, came after my teaching an advanced course for Christian leaders. Since then, I have wrestled and worked with my approach to teaching; seeking to creatively and consistently make difficult material accessible.

I am not sure I want to…or need to…hear either clause of that sentence again.I have been honored, though, to hear from my FPU students remarks like:

“Thank you for explaining and presenting that so well; it was engaging and made me feel like I could learn anything!”

Since I am not…Having said all that, it was prelude to my posting the "Real Preachers of Genius" video below, which I didn't fully get at first...because I don't watch TV much (too busy reading books like the one at right), and so never got the original ads that these is spoofing.

John Janzen won 2nd place in Peter Rollin's parable contest for Constantine’s Conversion:

The Emperor Constantine, facing the biggest battle of his reign, looked into the setting sun at the Lilvian Bridge and saw a vision of the Cross of Christ. As he gazed at the cross he heard a voice say “By this sign, conquer”.

The next day he gave up his reign as Emperor, surrendered all his many possessions, and went to live and work among the poor. And forever after he was known as one of the greatest heroes of the faith for his obedience to the voice of God.

Friday, September 18, 2009

I sure am enjoying a new blog friend, Bub, whose new blog "Not Peace But a Sword"should be checked out.Sample excerpt:

...when I went looking to find a God as I understand Him, this wasn’t how I envisioned it was going to go. Far from it.

I wanted one of those all-purpose deities, ya know what I mean? The anything goes, whatever-I-think-is-right-he-thinks-is-right kind of gods. A god of my own creation and purpose.

I certainly wasn’t looking for a God that was going to call me on my bullshit. I wasn’t looking for a God that had His own agenda that had nothing to do with my own personal agenda that I have held so dear. You know, me, me and what’s that? A little more me please.

....Ahhh, there’s the rub. The stinkin’ Bible. If I’d never read that book I’d bealright. If I had just stayed away from the Word of God I could go on like mostevery other American male goes on. Not a care in the world except about what my next big purchase was going to be. My next supah vacation. My next illicitaffair. Man, did I mention I hate telling on myself? I really do, but I will. Iknow that in the end it will save me....

There you will see references to his older blog, "God Me and Poker, which in turn links to two older blogs

(both come with Bub's "WARNING! Explicit content. The only reason I'm linking to this is to show how far I've come. Thank you Jesus, I don't have to live like that ever again. ")which I am glad he was real enough to leave up; each blog represents a sucessive phase in his journey.

Look, if this whole deal with God is at all real, it has to do better than droneon in hypothetical and scholastic debates. It has to apply to premarital nudity,dreams of personal glory, colossal lapses in judgment, family dysfunctions,battles with addiction, and frustration with fools. It must have something tosay about tenacity, idolatry, heroes, love, sunsets, demons, prayer, miracles,worms, rivers and hard-won orgasm. Tell me about that stuff. Admit that you'vesomehow come to believe that the sin of the world can hold a candle to thewretchedness of your own heart. Take on questions that are bigger than youranswers. Fight to let pain serve its purpose. Let grace shine through if it's soreal and so great and so worth living for. Show me a Jesus who gives a shitabout the world I inhabit, and I'll keep reading.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Since I am preaching to the choir in these parts of the Internet, I probably don't have to remind you that many (most? all?) the references in the NT to "The Word" that we have been told are 'obviously' referring to the Bible, are in the clear opinion of the early church and fathers referring to Jesus:

"Preach the Word, in season and out of season"

"The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword."

etc

Even:

"Rightly dividing the Word of Truth"

Russ Willingham did a great session on this, including references to early writers,offering clear evidence....I need his notes.

Of course the Word/Logos usually refers to something even "bigger and wider" than Scripture..maybe even bigger than Jesus: God's overall influence and power, and any means of his speaking/communicating.

It seems most of these NT references are commentary on the John 1 or Rev: 19:13 traditions. And in the days the NT was being written, there was no developed sense of Scripture as The Word.

Of course there are OT references to the Word (Hebrew davar), such as the classic prooftext, of Is 55:11...which obviously can't refer directly to Jesus, and do refer to the OT Scriptures...but also so much more..in context it's "what comes out of [God's] mouth," not (just) The Scriptures. It sometimes takes a discussion about something unrelated (?) to help us back into focus....Something like a chat about Woody Allen:

WORLD: If you were sitting next to Woody Allen on a plane, what would you say to him?

METAXAS: I have to somehow figure out how to connect with him. . . . If you come across as morally superior, that's unbiblical, that's wrong, it's a lie, so you're confused. But also you'll push the person away. You've got to find a point of connection, otherwise they won't hear you. If you walk around New York you might see someone, semi-homeless, almost always from out of town, with a hat and a Bible "preaching the word" on the street. Nine times out of 10 they are not preaching the Word any more than Satan was when he was quoting the Bible to Jesus in the wilderness. The words are not magic. Some people will respond, "The word of God will not return void," and yes, the capital-w Word of God, the Logos, will not return void—but the words of the Bible can certainly return void unless they're anointed by the Holy Spirit. Many people think that if they just spew out Scripture or something that people are hearing them, but it's not true. Jesus never did that. He always connected with everyone around him.link

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Monday, September 14, 2009

Whats up with this guy Bono...he just can't stop talking about God (3:42) Some people don't realize he means it.Just as they did with the European leg of the tour, U2 has leaked a promo video for the North American leg...this one also includes much of the unreleased song "Kingdom." If that song is news to you, check it out here in a previous post that sent my blog stats through the roof.Here's the new video:

Saturday, September 12, 2009

I was at this concert..would love to know what Bono was praying/prophesying over the city (Sacramento) at 3;33ff. Anybody remember, or can anyone discern? The end sounds like "on your knees,"For a version of what he often does in a spontaneous section (a room-to-play/prophesy/improvise/scat zone Martin Smith of Delirious callsthe "drop-down box" section of a song ) like this, see:

"I sill see the world as in need of a massive shot of not only morality, but also satire...today is the best of times to be Alice...A lot of Alice's show is...satirical. By making fun of society from the fringes, I never have to worry about being mistaken for a sugarcoated praise performer."-p. 206

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe

Thursday, September 03, 2009

The tragic news this week that one of the best translations of the Bible ever published (No one less than the respected Fee and Stuart in "How to Read the Bible for all its wort," offered, "We would venture to suggest that the TNIV is as good a translation as you will get") will be discontinued is a ridiculous and unnecsesary tragedy; due to some well-meaning but horribly misguided people who boycotted and blacklisted it....mostly because it included women!

Once to make the case that the King James language doesn't work for our day, I asked a 14-year old what "Charity suffereth long" meant. She was clueless.

Ask a 14-year old what "man" means...They'll say "a male." As them what "brother" means...They'll say "male sibling." Ask a 14 year old girl if she is a "son of God." They'll look at you as if you are nuts.

Does that make a translation heretical, unfaithful to Scriptural intent, feminist, or "liberal" for for translating:

"human" instead of man;"Blessed is the one" rather than "Blessed is the man,""brothers and sisters," not "brothers?

That the translators are now feeling forced to say the TNIV was a "mistake" and divisive..Sigh..

“We are correcting the mistakes in the past. Being as transparent as possible is part of that. This decision was made by the board was made in the last 10 days.”“The T-NIV is very divisive. It’s not a unifying translation. And it was poorly handled in the marketplace. We need to undo the damage.

"I can predict that this is going to look 90 percent or more what the 1984 NIV looks like and 95 percent what the TNIV looks like..The changes are going to be a very small portion of the whole Scripture package."

Dumb disclaimer:

It should go without saying...but i wouldn't want it to... that since this blog is a Spiritaneous place to throw out thoughts/feelings/articles "in process," it does not represent any of the fine institutions you see by my profile that I am affiliated with (Heck, it may not even represent me! (:........). The blog is merely an attempt to subvert subversion and "push toward the unobvious" (Thanks, Tim N. for that phrase) on the six hot topics listed at the top of the page....Welcome, engage it, and don't be offended (for the wrong reason, anyway!)